What's in it for me?

Political thoughts of the evening, all basically stolen from Tom Friedman in some way, shape, or form:

1. The best way to engender democratic reform in the Middle East, particularly Iran, is by ... drumroll....reducing the world's dependence on their oil! I know, I'm brilliant. But seriously, as long as prices hover around $40/barrel, there ain't no way in hell the mullahs will give up or change. That's a lot of money coming their way everyday, what evil regime WOULDN'T want to keep that going? Unfortunately, the main causes of the price spikes are Chinese demand (friggin huge, and not going away anytime soon; heck, they're building three new nuclear power plants, and that'll only solve like 2% of the problem) and Nigerian worker strikes. But, BUT... the U.S. alone can make a significant dent simply by INDICATING a move away from oil; this means following through on the whole electric-motor craze (right now it's little more than a fad), promoting conservation, and a whole host of other ideas i don't know anything about. Again, the point is to simply START getting serious about it. I'm willing to bet that this will unnerve the mullahs just as much as the diplomatic sabre rattling that's going on right now. Besides, I strongly believe that whichever country (U.S., India, China, European Union) gets the lead on energy innovation will be best positioned for long-term prosperity (ie, the next superpower).

2. Bin Laden's bounty is now $50 million, recently doubled after being $25M for quite a while. When I first heard this, I thought, if $25M wasn't enough, what makes us think 50 will do the trick? This move (one of Condi Rice's first decisions as Sec of State), combined with Bush's State of the Union speech -- in which he referred to and quoted Zarqawi by name -- is sending the wrong message. Read Friedman's editorial here. Basically, the U.S. is emboldening the reputation of these guys. Think about it. Think about what kind of impact is made when your name is spoken by the President of the United States in the State of the Union. I mean, that's huge. Sure, Bush has said his name before, but not in such formal fashion in front of millions of Americans and broadcast around the world. Bin Laden's bounty increase is just silly. If there was a chance one of his supporters or some greedy local would give him up, $25M would be enough. Time for a new strategy.

3. As much as I admire the chutzpah of the President to take on such a huge, cumbersome issue as Social Security, it still seems like a low priority when compared to all we could be doing instead (my faves: securing our borders, reforming the tax code). Sure, I'd love a private account, but the amount of political resources and personal energy Bush is dedicating to this debate is what one would expect in peacetime. Not when we're at war. Maybe he thinks he can do it all: Fight a war, fix social security, pass medical liability & tax code reform, solve the border problem, etc. But he's only got like 2 years before the media turns its attention to 2008, and then it's all Hilary all the time (go McCain! Or Mitt!).

moving on...

The SuperBowl was alright. The best commercial was the Ameriquest one with the cat and the pasta sauce. Scratch that, it was only the funniest. The BEST one was the Anheuser-Busch military appreciation spot which showed a group of soldiers walking through an airport and then being applauded by everyone they passed in the terminal. Good stuff. Makes me want to join the army. Or not.